[[1]]
To Lady Palgrave
Copy
H.E.I.C. Steam Frigate Moozuffer *1 off Maldive Islands.
Dec 24. 1847
My dear Aunt,
In this ship there is so much jogging & jarring motion, that I have been unable to
carry on my writing for the Press & being thus thrown partly idle, I take up my
correspondence. Do not laugh when I tell you this is excellent writing! in
comparison with every other specimen of my penmanship produced since leaving
Suez. The reason of its perfection is, that the Steamer has just stopped to repair
her Paddle wheels: you will see a great difference, when she gets off again. I have
been extremely delighted with our voyage hitherto; & nothing pleased me better
than a few hours, spent at the Pyramids, on our way through Egypt. I could not
help wishing that my cousin, Gifford, could have seen them, as we did: & I hope
that he still may on his return to Europe. With the curious features of the Nile it is
unnecessary to detain you. The city of Cairo is situated, as you know, at the fork of
the Delta, on the advancing spur of the first range of hills we had seen, on our
passage up from Alexandria, & which reaches from the Eastern Desert to the left
Bank of the Nile; these sloping down rather abruptly, & presenting a fine site for
the Citadel, with its beautiful Mosque & Palaces. All the little features of the banks
of the stream between Aftèh & Cairo, which are familiar to us by Scripture History
& here realized for the first time are forgotten, when Cairo & the Pyramids open to
the view, for these are the first grand objects which force themselves upon the
notice of the most heedless traveller. To me, however, the banded cliffs of sand,
along the banks, were very suggestive: indicating as they do, the successive
deposits of fertile soil, & as many epochs of rejoicing
[[2]] throughout the narrow belt of habitable land in Egypt from the earliest ages:-& through every change, however violent, which this miserable country has
undergone. At this time (beginning of Dec[embe]r) the Nile had just resumed its
proper channel; & the banks, on either side, were, in some places, alive with the
poor Fellahs hurrying the seed into the ground. At Cairo, the belt of productive soil
(which is every where confined to the overflowed portion) does not exceed 5 miles
on the right bank, & not one upon the Cairo side, but the best use is made of it.
Considering the vast size & body of water in the Nile, & the prodigious length of
that river, its effects are trifling; less perhaps than any river of the same
dimensions. This is owing to the immense distance from which every particle of the
precious mud is transported:-- also, to the fact, that it is only the lesser branch, the
Blue Nile (that of Abyssinia, & explored by Bruce) which contributes at all to the
fertility of Egypt. On the other hand, if we reflect upon what the country would be,
without the Nile its importance & effects cannot be exaggerated; for, indefatigable
as the river has been, it has not deposited more than 8 feet of soil, since the time
of the Ptolemies.
The Pyramids are on the opposite side of the Nile from Cairo; &, the distance
being about 12 miles, by road (further or nearer, according to the state of the
inundated intervening country) We made arrangements, over night, for starting
early the following morning. At 3, we took Donkeys, provisions, & 2 Dragomen, &
passed through the narrow alleys & under the latticed windows of Cairo, to a place
opposite Ghizeh [Giza]. On our route we saw many Palaces, belonging to wealthy
Merchants & Princes, -- Gardens, Groves & plantations, near the river, -- the
School of Languages, & the Sugar--Mills belonging to the Pasha; Ibrahims' Palace,
named Rhoda, & 2 half
[[3]] finished (apparently never to be completed) Aquaducts of five arches,
destined to convey water from the Nile to the Citadel. The spot where we crossed
the Nile, is highly picturesque; opposite the upper end of a long island, where the
famous Nilometer is placed. The banks on both sides, were crowded with latteen
sailed Boats, & green with Date Palms, Acacias, Sycamore & Sugar-cane
plantations The river was a magnificent stream as broad as the Thames at London
Bridge, or thereabouts; shining in the sun, & flowing with a current of between 2 &
3 miles an hour, studded with boats, & evidently rejoicing on its course. We beheld
the Pyramids, 6 miles off, in a straight line; they rose above the Palm-trees &
looked grand in the distance; altogether different from anything that can be seen
elsewhere. But they are so infinitely more curious than handsome, that it is
impossible to help feeling that in many other shapes, they would have looked
bigger, & in any other more attractive. In themselves they do not invite, as most
remarkable objects would do, a closer inspection; it is the force of Associations
which compels you to approach, together with your previously acquired information
respecting the empty wonders they enclose.
The Island, on which the Nilometer is situated, is walled from the water far above
the level of the soil: its houses & green trees, however, peep over the walls; the
latter (the trees) being of highly varied heights & hues; Dates, Orange, Acacia, &
Banana; giving the whole a very pleasing appearance. The upper extremity of the
Island is occupied by the building, in which the height of the Nile is registered.
There is nothing to be seen in it; still it is an interesting object; for, if I remember
right, the former (& I dare say the present) Rulers of Egypt have a mode of
regulating the Corn--Market by suiting the official report of the state of the river to
that of their Granaries. Exaggerating the height of the waters is tanta--
[[4]] --mount to promising an abundant harvest for 3 years, & thereby lowering the
price of the Corn already in hand.
We crossed the Nile in a kind of Boat, similar to what is figured in Bruce's Travels,
& called a Canjan. We were in a small one; & the asses followed in another.
During the passage I had time to make 2 little sketches, one of the opposite banks
-- Ghizeh & the Pyramids from the E[ast]. shore -- & of the Nilometer & Cairo from
the West -- in both instances, looking across the noble stream. Both banks were
alike thronged with filthy Egyptians, of all mixtures of blood. -- pure & mingled,
Ethiopians, Nubians, Abyssinians, Turks, & a few Copts, whom I suppose to be the
most peculiar race:-- at all events they appeared to have the long almond shaped
eye, so conspicuous in the sculptured figures of Ancient Egypt & quite different
from the Turk or Arab eye. I was unfortunate in meeting with no person in Cairo
who could give me information on this & many other points: all the individuals to
whom I was recommended were away.
From Ghizeh, the village to which we crossed, & from which the Pyramids take
their name, we struck inland -- through cultivated fields of Date plantations for a
little way, & then over a long flat, without house or tree, & all cut up by little canals
& dykes, retaining the waters of the late inundation, & distributing it in every
direction. The soil is a rich fat mud, through which the naked Arabs were wading,
scattering the seeds of Pulse, Tare, & such Vegetables. We wound along the
margins of the enclosures for many miles by a course so devious, that often our
backs were turned to the Pyramids. These looked bigger & bigger as we
approached, till we arrive within 2 feet miles of their bases. We were then stopped
by broad beds of mud & clay, puddly canals, & chains of Lagoons, which, together,
constitute the outermost limit of the fertile soil on the W[est]. boundary of the
Inundation. By these pools a great body of water is retained, which gradually
evaporates, &
[[5]] leaves its bed dry, previous to the following year's rise of the Nile. On reaching
this we were met by parties of Arabs, who scampered up to us & led us to the
brink of the pools. There, 2 of them lifted me off the Donkey, & forthwith, making a
Queen's chair, transported me half across, landing me in some rich mud, covered
with maize stalks. Thus we were all conveyed; riding at times, then splashing
through the wet, & again carried by 2 naked & evil--smelling Arabs, till we arrived
at some hard soil, a mixture of mud & sand, on the edge of the Desert. An abrupt
Cliff of Limestone & sand rises immediately above the half inundated tract I have
described; & upon it are placed the two Grand & several lesser Pyramids, the
Sphynx[sic] below them on the slope of the sand hills, & the mouths of the
Catacombs on the Limestone Cliff:-- a strange mixture altogether, of objects
bearing no obvious relation to each other! From here, the Pyramids looked vast
indeed; but as we approached still nearer, owing to the foreshortening of their
sloping faces, they rapidly decreased to appearance, till, when standing under
their bases, it required both study & consideration to appreciate their gigantic
dimensions. The perspective of each face is so rapid that you could positively think
a few strides are all that lie between the bottom & the top.
As to the Sphynx[sic], it is truly stupendous, & looks larger & larger as you
approach; no doubt because it is an object directly comparable with an ever present
standard, -- one's self. Of merit of execution, it has none:-- grandeur, beauty,
placidity, & dignity are alike wanting, there is not a worse & more ineffectual piece
of workmanship in St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey. Like the Pyramids, it is
wonderful, & suggestive to an educated individual;-- but nothing more. The poor
face is terribly knocked to pieces -- & as it can never have had any loveliness to
spare, you may guess how flat & unengaging an object it is, buried up to the throat
in sand & rubbish,
[[6]] & looking as unable to help itself as it really is. One likes to believe a noble
piece of Art; but it is impossible to pity the Sphynx[sic].
The bases of the Pyramids are covered deeply with rubbish, so that the rock, on &
with which they are built & which forms a core 60 feet high, in the centre of the
largest, is nowhere visible. I had only time to go over one properly, the Pyramid of
Cheops, whose dimensions you doubtless know.-- 456 feet high & each base 763
feet. The crowd of vociferous & importunate Arabs who surrounded us here,
impeding all our motions & menacing us with a colony of vermin, was most
disagreeable. They all belong to one Tribe, & are under the Sheik[sic] of the
district, who pays tribute to the Pacha[sic], & demands money for permission to
ascend, or enter the edifices. Two naked beings take you to the top,
scrambling like cats, & pulling you from ledge to ledge. As the steps are much
higher than they are broad, each measuring 4 feet & 2/3ds high in the lower tiers,
the ascent is fatiguing, though easily accomplished in 10 minutes. All parts except
from the Interior, are formed of Shell Limestone, the same as the subadjacent rock
of a pale yellow color & tolerably hard. The whole was once cased in a harder
rock, which, taking a beautifully smooth surface, rendered the slope of each face
as smooth as polished marble. But all this casing is gone from the Great Pyramid:
a little only remains at the apex of the 2nd, or Pyramid of Cephrenes, which is thus
rendered all but inaccessible. The view from the summit is magnificent. Be- neath,
looking eastwestward, is the emerald plain, through which sweeps the mighty Nile,
sparkling in the sun, as it winds through groves & gardens & cultivated land.
Beyond, is the City of Cairo, a dense mass of white houses, with minarets like
spearheads, crowned by the Citadel with its monster Castle, Domes & pinnacles,
& backed by the white cliffs of the Mohatten Hills. Looking up the Nile, the ribband
of verdure
[[7]] appears to dwindle to nothing as the river retreats into the Desert, its course
buryed[sic], so to speak, as it enters the sandy plain, by 2 other groups of
Pyramids on its banks.-- beyond which the eye perceives no out- line or horizon to
the sand hills. Due S[outh].E[ast]., on a line with the diagonal of the great Pyramid
whereon I stood, the 2d Pyramid rose, about 300 yards distant; -- of nearly equal
height, capped with the relics of its casing, & terminating in all but a sharp point. At
its foot, were little Pyramids, awkwardly placed, without reference to the Parent
one, & much dilapidated. All to the Crest was bathed in the yellow haze which
overhangs the sandhills of the vast Lybian Desert.
I made a few sketches of these scenes, the grandest perhaps, but certainly the
least attractive, I had ever viewed; & after collecting all the Lichens I could find on
the stones near the summit (where alone they grow), I descended, & arranged for
visiting the Interior. Here I was highly interested Though hurried along the slippery
inclined passages by 2 Arabs, choking with heat & dust; & crouching on hands &
knees, I perfectly remembered every passage & chamber, every ascent & descent.
The intense interest with which I had read, when a boy, the history of the entrance
& exploration of this Pyramid, was vividly recalled to my mind; & I astonished my
companion by telling him when we were close to a well, a chamber -- the ascent,
or descent &c. The incomprehensible form of the avenue which leads to the upper
or King's Chamber, which is many times higher than broad, & its sides, above,
terraced outwards, as it were, with slabs of polished Granite; -- the polished Canal,
along which the Sarcophagus was dragged, & the Sarcophagus itself,--all were
familiar to my mind, even to the polished Granite stones of the Chamber, & their
dimensions, each 17 feet long, by 3 3/4 feet wide. The inside of the Pyramid was
to me incomparably more striking than the exterior; perhaps
[[8]] only because it had afforded to my memory the most happy occasion of
rejoicing in its exercise; & because our earliest reading is retained the best. There
is one grievous disappointment in the Pyramids, & which is increased by visiting
them:-- I mean their utter futility. It is now, I believe, proved that they are simply the
Mausolea of individuals When I was a child; I was used to regard them as having
been constructed for a triple object. (any one of which were better, than the
commemoration of a mere mortal) -- namely, as astronomical buildings,-- as
places of worship,-- & as edifices dedicated to the genius of the Nile, whose
waters brought fertility to their bases. If any of these ideas had been correct, the
Pyramids might, when more understood, have thrown some light on the Science of
the Egyptians; & though mixed up with Astrology & Mythology, they would have
given evidence, that their constructors possessed a faint insight into truths, which,
till lately, were hidden from ourselves. The Egyptian Priest, who told Pliny (I
believe). that the Atlantic Ocean contained Islands, bigger than Europe & Africa
put together, might have left in the Pyramids some further proof of his conviction,
that there is a Western World, if Science had, either wholly or in part, suggested
their foundation. Our early prejudices are thus liable to be continually outraged.
Yet I hardly see why we should be sorry to find out, that our Predecessors were
less wise than we had supposed them.
And now, dear Aunt I must bring this long letter to a close. Glad I was indeed to
see Matilda Rigby the other day, so soon after she had dined with you, F.
Henslow, & Elizabeth, & to hear all about you, that she had been able to pick up
with eyes and ears. Best love to Uncle, Frank, Inglis & Reginald Your very
affectionate nephew | Jos. D. Hooker.
(To Lady Palgrave Hampstead)
ENDNOTES
1. Honourable East India Company Steam Frigate Moozuffer.
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